Shelter from the Storm
by longfong
Summary: It is roughly ten years into the future, and Naruto has made some progress on his quest to become Hokage. But a new chuunin, a new teammate, and an interesting mission have complicated his life. I don't want to give away the pairing...but...Hinata x Nar


Disclaimer: I do not claim to have the rights to publish this story. It is in no way intended to intrude of the rights of the various companies that own _Naruto_.

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I decided to put a prologue in as an introduction for an original character and to help give an idea of where some of the ninja from the main story have gotten in the time after where the show currently is. You could probably still have the understanding of the story without this, so if it doesn't do justice to the story just let me know in the reviews and I will work some of the necessary information into the main body of the story. 

Also, while you read, keep in mind that even though the prologue is devoid of any romance, that will be one of the focuses of the story from chapter one and on.

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_Shelter from the Storm_

**Prologue**

The group of four shinobi surreptitiously flew through the air, coming to a dead and silent halt, each around a different part of the tiny house hidden by both the black of the night and a small oak thicket. The masked figure by the door flashed a few hand signals to the figure above it, who, after putting an ear to the roof, nodded back. The man by the door's mask showed an inked panther, its hurried appearance pressed by the figure's waving arm. The figures with a dog and a cheetah mask each formed a single hand seal, and were quickly transformed into two men in white robes. After looking each other up and down, they rushed from the bushes to the front door and knocked. A man in identical attire opened the door, quizzically glaring at the strangers on his door step.

"Can I help you?" He growled. The middle aged man's scrunched nose made him resemble an angry wolf when he spoke.

"Yes. We require _shelter from the storm_." The visitor stressed those words especially. After a short pause, the wolf man let them in.

The room wasn't poorly furnished exactly, but under furnished. There was only a single chair, in the room, which was occupied by a small bound and gagged child. He wore a blindfold, but oddly the white cloth's edges were pushed out near the boy's temples. The other ten people in the room were kneeling on pads. The clean white of the room created great contrast with the almost mossy oak walls of the small cabin. A few scrolls were hanging on the wall, but nothing more than a single person could carry in his or her arms. It seemed to be only a temporary meeting place that was abandoned over and over again after each meeting.

"Who might these two be?" The man in the center of the kneeling throng asked the doorman.

"I haven't the slightest. They know the code though."

**OUTSIDE**

The figure dropped from the roof silently, moving next to the other figure.

"Why don't we just go in there? We can take them easily enough." The man in a fox mask asked.

"Because, we need to collect as much information as possible."

"Interrogation works better." The man whispered.

"There is no telling what we might learn this way. Things we might not know to ask."

After a nod in agreement, the man in the fox mask formed some seals and touched the wall of the cabin. The words on the inside were clear now.

"Why didn't you do that before?" The man in the panther mask asked.

"They weren't talking."

**INSIDE**

"My name is Rette Utozichi. This is Ryu Mikahiro."

"Why are you here?" The man asked, standing up. He picked up a katana from under his pad.

"I imagine the same reason as you are."

"That's it," The man barked, "Tell me how you knew the code or I will cut you down right here."

"That seems rather rude. We should be united against the shinobi, brother, not slaying each other." The ninja used what little knowledge he had of these people. _There goes my trump card_, he thought.

"This is true. Your accent, it sounds…Fire Country. How did you come to be in the Storm Country? And how did you come to join the association?"

"Do we really have time for this?" The ninja pleaded, but the other members began to get up and grab swords of their own. "Fox, Panther."

Without any hesitation, the door immediately crashed down and the other figures shot into the room. The numbers were 10 against 4, but as the anbu knew, the odds were greatly in their own favor. In a small puff of smoke, the two figures returned to their black suit and masks. Each one readied a kunai and waited for the others to attack. The only sound was breathing from the white robed figures as they faced their enemy. The sound of a wolf howling in the distance triggered the battle.

The best the sword-baring men could manage was one swing before they were disarmed. Six men attacked the man in the cheetah man at once. He easily dodged the first three blades, disarming the first two, but the forth swing came a bit too close to beating the anbu's duck for his liking. After the man stumbled on, the ANBU tossed his kunai backwards without looking back, then caught the next blade between clapping hands, snapping it in half and kneeing the astonished wielder in the stomach. Four men attacked this next time. The figure in the cheetah mask was ready with another kunai, but the other members of his team stepped in, each tackling one of the robed men.

After they were all tied up on the floor, the problem of the boy needed to be dealt with.

"Should we take our masks off?"

"Well we don't want to scare him."

"Good point, leave yours on Naruto."

"GO TO HELL!"

"Hahahah. Let's just henge and talk to him."

"Why waste more chakra?"

"Ahhh!" After finishing his yell of frustration, the figure removed his dog mask.

"Kiba! You moron!" Naruto raged. Kiba merely shrugged. The figure with the tiger mask vanished in a puff of smoke to become a medium sized dog. Akamaru was no longer big enough to fit under Kiba's hood. Naruto removed his fox mask and the other figure opted to henge into a gorgeous 100 naked woman.

"Ahaha!" Naruto laughed with a sleeve over his face, attempting to hide his bleeding nose. "Konohamaru, you are going to do something worse than scare that kid."

Konohamaru quickly returned to his normal state, and after removing the blindfold, found out that they had changed their appearances for no reason. The boy's eyes were extremely scarred and the lids were blackened as if charred. "Please," he groaned, "Put it back on. The light…" was all the boy managed to get out before he fainted. They did as asked.

"Now how do we get all these people back to Konoha?"

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Yes yes, it is a very short prologue, but the chapters will more than make up for it in length. 

I am human just like anyone else (duh) and most likely have made a mistake or two in here that I overlooked every single time I proofread this. Please let me know in the reviews or via AIM longfaung or email as I am human I also appreciate praise from the readers, salutes of my infinite glory, and hugs and kisses. I DO NOT enjoy flames, but that state will most likely encourage flamers seeing as it is what you are looking for, neh?

If I get a steady stream of review I will mostly likely be able to get in over a chapter a week since I have written far ahead and just need to do some typing and revision.


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